


Madison

by naasad



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Cats, Children, Family, Fluff, Gen, Skateboarding, Surrogacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-04 17:45:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17902658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naasad/pseuds/naasad
Summary: After the events of Season 15, Wash is given a medical discharge. And that's when he meets his new neighbors.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a whole bunch of headcanons in one and my two favorite OCs and I love it.

Retirement.

That was a word Wash never thought he’d hear.

Recovery, court-martial, dishonorable discharge…. Those had all been applied to him before, but retirement?

“Medical discharge,” Dr. Grey said softly, seeming aware of what he was thinking. “Your brain has been abused and traumatized over and over again – concussions, whatever happened with your implants, and most recently cerebral hypoxia. Not to mention your obvious PTS. I’m sorry, Agent Washington, but I took an oath to do no harm. I can’t keep that oath and clear you for field duty.

“A lot of other people are having to be discharged after the war, and a lot of them are having trouble integrating back into civilian life as well. If you want, I can set you up with a support group. The woman who runs it is a good friend of mine, and she’s seen some things, more than most of us.”

Wash stood, clenched and unclenched his fists. “No, thank you. I’ll be okay.” He walked away.

Carolina was waiting outside.

“Did you know?”

She shook her head. “I suspected, but you were getting better, and you tend to bounce back from pretty much anything.” She smiled. “Like that damned cat.”

Wash couldn’t find it in him to smile back, but the fight went out of him as he climbed into the Warthog. “I’ll have to live off base,” he said once they were moving.

“I’ll talk to Kimball about finding something. Any requests?”

Wash bit his finger, thinking hard. “Something high up. With a really fancy shower – the ones with the pressure jets? – and a mattress that isn’t too soft. And close to the exits.”

Carolina nodded, keeping her eyes focused on the road. “I’ll see what I can do. I’ll make sure to get you a good security system and a locker for your armor and weapons.”

Wash sighed and slumped in his seat. “You’re the best, sis.”

 

* * *

 

 

He’d been in his new apartment for all of an hour when his neighbors started acting up. Someone was yelling, someone was talking quietly, he couldn’t make out the words to either of them, but seriously?

Another hour after the yelling died down, there was a knock on his door. On the other side was a young woman, holding a tray of cookies.

Wash sighed and opened the door. He supposed he was going to have to get used to mundane neighborly things like house calls.

“’Sup?” the girl said, strolling right past him into his living room. “Nice to meet you, new neighbor. Mind if I stay a bit? My aunt’s driving me crazy.”

“Sure?” Wash said as she flopped down on his couch and started scrolling through his digital library. “Who are you?”

“Madison,” she said.

“And you live with your… aunt?”

Madison shrugged. “Yeah, all my dads died, and she gave birth to me so she kept me, whoop-de-doo.”

“How old are you?”

“Fourteen.”

Wash blinked in shock. “You don’t… look fourteen. Won’t your aunt worry about you?”

Madison reached into her pocket and started playing with the knife she unearthed. “I’m tall for my age. And I got more than one of these on me. I’ll be fine. Even if you are a crazy creepazoid, which you’re not.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You haven’t closed the door yet.”

Wash glanced behind him. “Huh.” He shut the door and sat down next to her on the couch. “What are we watching?”

“Some old Earth film about pilots and rescuing people and never saying die.” She ripped the plastic wrap off the plate she had brought with her. “Have a cookie. They’re triple chocolate fudge. Not to brag, but they’re amazing.”

She wasn’t lying. They were quite possibly the best cookies ever. Of all time.

 

* * *

 

 

Madison left as soon as the movie was over, taking the last cookie with her.

“Interesting,” Wash murmured to himself.

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning, he met up with Carolina at a nearby coffee shop.

“Any word from the reds and blues?” he asked.

“None so far,” Carolina said, smiling. “They’re probably just making some sort of detour or another.”

Wash grinned wryly and reached for his coffee, then spat it back out. “Did I order this?”

Carolina’s smile fell. “You did,” she said.

Silence fell like a blanket as Wash tried his drink again, more prepared for it now.

“How’s the apartment?”

“Good. The neighbors are nice. The bed’s too soft.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Wash rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to watch out for me, Carolina. You didn’t do it before.”

Carolina frowned. “Day.”

Wash stood and left, taking his drink with him.

At home, he found Madison stretched out on his couch. “How did you get in?”

“You didn’t set up the security code,” she said. “The default is your apartment number. I changed it for you. Zero-two-three-zero-one.”

Wash closed his eyes and mouthed it to himself three times before giving up. “Could you write that down for me?”

Madison nodded and reached for the pad of paper he had on the side table. The late afternoon sunlight caught her hair and turned it into every single color on the planet.

He blinked, and it was gone.

“You’re staring,” she said.

“You reminded me of someone.”

She grinned. “I got one of those faces, you know.”

Wash snorted. “Move over, Bacon, there’s something leaner.”

Madison dutifully moved over her feet, then fixed him with a blank look.

“It’s an old Earth commercial,” he explained. “My mom liked to say it.”

“Ah.”

There was a comfortable silence for a while. “Did you fight with your aunt again?”

“Not really. I just had to get out of the house. It gets claustrophobic.”

Wash nodded. “I fought with my sister today.”

“Damn, that sucks.”

“Yeah. Wanna choose a movie? I’ll order calzones.”

Madison reached for the remote, then paused. “I’m gay, by the way.”

“Hm?” Wash asked. “Oh, hi, gay, I’m bi.”

“That was terrible.” Madison giggled and relaxed a tiny bit. “That’s the first time I’ve said it out loud. Figured if you were a dick about it, I could just not come over anymore.”

“Makes sense,” Wash said. “I came out to the janitor at school first. Extra cheese?”

“Always. Do I look like a heathen?”

“Choose a good movie and we’ll see.”

 

* * *

 

 

Madison chose the best movies. She continued to come over at least once a week, and it quickly became part of Wash’s new routine.

Coffee with Carolina, talk with Kimball, therapy with Grey, movies with Madison.

He did worry that a fourteen-year-old girl was fast becoming one of his closest friends.

“I think I should meet your aunt,” he finally said one night.

Madison looked up and sighed dramatically. “Okay, fine. But now she’s gonna know where I go when we fight.”

Wash shrugged. “I’m sure we can come to some sort of agreement. Tomorrow?”

Madison shook her head. “She’s out of town for the next two weeks. Some sort of Group thing.”

“Group?”

“Yeah, she does this thing for soldiers having a hard time being civilians. I don’t know, she rarely talks about it – 'cause of confidentiality – and I don’t really listen when she does.”

“Huh,” Wash said, thinking back to Emily’s offer when he’d first been discharged.

 

* * *

 

 

The next time Madison broke into his apartment, she immediately fell face-first on the couch, sighing and groaning dramatically.

“Alright, what’s wrong?” Wash asked, sitting on the coffee table.

Madison muttered something into her pillow.

“I can’t hear you.”

“I said ‘girl problems’!” Madison huffed and rolled over onto her back. “The barista downstairs is like ten years older than me. She should not be allowed to be that cute.”

Wash laughed. “It's not as bad when you're older. My boyfriends were seven and nine years older than me.”

“Boyfriends?” Madison asked. “Plural?”

Wash shrugged. “Consent, communication, caring. Foundation of any healthy relationship. Two people are twice the work, but….” He smiled sadly, looking over at the windows, then he sighed. “I miss them.”

“Yeah?” Madison asked. “What happened to them?”

“They died.”

“Oh.” Madison bit her lip. “Tell me about them?”

Wash beamed. “York would love you,” he said, and they spent the rest of the evening talking about his old lovers.

 

* * *

 

 

Wash jolted awake to the sound of the alarm, hand slipping under his pillow for his knife.

“Hey, can you get that?” Madison hollered from the living room. “My hands are kind of full!”

Wash sighed and put the knife away, padding out silently to turn it off.

“Thanks,” Madison said, setting a large cardboard box on the coffee table.

“What is that?” Wash demanded. “And why couldn’t it wait until afternoon?”

Madison looked up and raised an eyebrow. “It is the afternoon.” She glanced over at his bare chest pointedly.

“I’ll put a shirt on,” Wash said.

“You do that.”

When Wash returned to the living room, he found Madison playing with three tiny balls of fur. “Are those kittens?” he asked, nearly vibrating with excitement.

Madison looked up and grinned. “Yep, meet Casper, Daffy, and Ollie, your new roommates.”

Wash blinked in shock as he sat down, reaching for Casper, a little cream kitten. “You skate?”

“You, too?” Madison grinned and held out her fist. “Awesome. We should go to the park sometime.”

“I don’t have a board,” Wash said, bumping her fist, “or I totally would.”

“Well, now I know what I’m getting you for Christmas.”

“I’m Jewish.”

“Great, Chanukkah’s closer anyway.”

 

* * *

 

 

Wash woke up early the day he was supposed to meet Madison’s aunt. He fed the cats, made himself respectable, and then waited for her to ring his doorbell.

Suddenly, there was yelling, running, and pounding on his door.

Well, it wasn’t the doorbell, but it was something. He opened it expecting to see Madison and was met by a fist in the face.

As he struggled to get off the ground, there was a distinct shout of “What the fuck? David?!”

“What?” Madison asked, coming up behind her aunt. “No, his name is Wash.”

Wash shook his head and finally managed to get to his feet. “Both actually, who-?” He looked up and his jaw went slack. “Ten?!”

The woman before him stared back.

He stammered for words. “Agent Tennessee?”

Ten nodded sharply. “Kiran, actually. Did the others-?”

Wash shook his head. “All dead. Except Carolina and me. And apparently you.”

Ten rushed forward and wrapped her arms around him. “Jesus Christ.”

“How did you get Madison?”

“You don’t remember?” Kiran asked, taking a step back.

Wash shook his head. “The AI they gave me kind of scrambled my brain.”

Kiran laughed. “You say that like it wasn’t already scrambled. Skateboarding through the MOI without a helmet….”

Wash smiled weakly. “I don’t really remember that.”

Madison looked back and forth between them. “How do you two know each other?”

Kiran glanced at Wash. “Does she know-?”

Wash nodded. “She knows I was dating North and York.”

Ten sighed and turned to her niece. “Ryan – North and I were dating in high school. We broke up when we realized we were both very gay, but-”

“You’re gay, too?!” Madison yelped.

Kiran stared in shock. “Yes? I don’t hide it.”

“Useless lesbians,” Wash coughed into his hand.

Ten’s elbow made bruising contact with his ribs, but she smiled softly. “As I was saying, we broke up, but we stayed friends and beards. We joined up together with his sister, and all three of us ended up in Project Freelancer. That’s when we met Jim – York – and this loser.” She jabbed her thumb at Wash. “The three of them got pretty serious pretty fast, started talking about having a kid, I offered to surrogate.”

Wash turned pensive. “I remember that now.”

Kiran nodded to him. “Then I got some hints of what was really up in the program and deserted as fast as I could. Stayed in touch with Jim, though. We met up when he was on shore leave. There was alcohol, there was talk of surrogating again, then there was sex, and nine months later, there was you. Jim sent us to his sister, President Kimball.”

Madison stared. “So… Wash is one of my dads?”

Wash stared back. “You remind me of him,” he said eventually. “I didn’t want to say, because I didn’t want to be creepy-”

“Too late,” Kiran snorted.

“But you remind me of him.” Wash glanced at Ten, and then at Madison. “I have no idea where you got your height from if those two were your parents, though.”

“Ryan must’ve willed it into existence,” Kiran said, smiling, then crossed over and poked at Madison’s face teasingly. “Just like how she somehow got your freckles.”

Madison froze, then turned and ran.

“Damn,” Kiran sighed. “I thought for sure she’d take that better.”

Wash glanced at her. “I’m not taking it too well, either,” he admitted. “I have a daughter.” He sat down on the couch and buried his face in his hands. “Fuck, I have a daughter.”

Kiran sighed. “I’ll go after her. You should call someone.”

Wash nodded, but he made no move for the phone once she was gone.

Casper crawled into his lap and butted his head against his arm.

Wash gave a long, ragged sigh. “Fuck.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look I finished something! Please review at the end.

'I can't find her," Ten said, coming back without Madison hours later.

Wash looked up from his position on the couch, shocked. "Does this happen often?"

Kiran sighed and shrugged. "Not too often. I panicked the first five times, but I've never managed to find her, and she's always managed to come back in one piece, even in an active war zone."

Wash scrubbed his face with a hand as he stood. "I can't accept that answer."

Kiran rolled her eyes. "I've been the one raising her for the ast thirteen years. Trust me. She'll come back."

"She's my daughter."

"And what do you think she is to me?"

"I seem to recall you being her aunt."

Kiran stood, glowering. "Fine. See if you can find her. I'll be waiting next door when you come back." And with that, she left.

Wash clenched and unclenched his fists before storming out the door.

He wandered the streets for half an hour before he came across a teen with a rudimentary board strapped to his chestplate. He grabbed him by the arm, perhaps a little too roughly. "Where's the nearest park?"

The boy barely managed to stammer out directions before Wash let him go, pushing him back in the direction he was heading.

He found the skaters with little difficulty, in a park constructed from the rubble of a destroyed building.

He stalked around the edges, looking for a flash of auburn hair, seeing nothing.

A pebble dropped on his head from above and he looked up to see Madison perched on an upper floor.

"You came," she called.

Wash nodded. "Hold that position. I'll come up to you."

Madison snorted, smiling. "Most people would just say 'stay there'."

Wash shrugged. "I've been in the military a long time."

He took a step back and scanned the building for handholds, taking a running leap at the side of the building and crawling up the wall carefully.

"Neat trick," Madison said, scooching over to make room for him.

"Is this your special place?" Wash asked, dangling his legs over the edge.

Madison shrugged. "I guess. I come here when I need to think. Auntie doesn't know about it."

Wash looked over his shoulder to see a ratty board behind her - irregular pieces of steel and wood and mismatched wheels, all held together with duct tape and glue. "Did you make that yourself, then?"

Madison laughed. "Yeah. It took me a while to get the balance right, but she's my girl." She pointed down at a familiar face, though Wash couldn't place from where. "And that's my other girl. Except not really, you know."

"The barista?"

"Yeah." Madison sighed and leaned back on the heels of her palms. "I didn't mean to run out. I just got... overwhelmed. All of a sudden, the random super nice neighbor guy is my dad."

Wash nodded, then grinned to himself. "I found out I have a daughter today."

Madison snorted, shaking her head.

"No, really. She's this wonderful, awesome human being. She reminds me so much of these two people I really loved who aren't here anymore, but she's just amazing by herself, too. She's got great taste in movies and makes the best cookies ever. Of all time. And she brought me cats. That automatically makes her my number one favorite person. I hear she's a pretty decent skater, too, but I've been having some memory problems lately, so I'm not too sure about that one-"

"Stop it," Madison said, bumping shoulders with him, grinning despite herself.

Wash laughed and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close as he pushed her bangs out of the way and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I just realized," he said, leaning back. "You got York's left eye."

"What?" Madison asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your other dad - your biological one - he lost his left eye in a training accident, probably right after you were born. I thought you had your mom's eyes, but they're actually two different shades of brown. This one," he tapped on her left cheekbone, right over a cluster of freckles, "is your dad's."

Madison scowled and pushed his hand away. "My aunt, you mean."

"I'm not so sure about that," Wash said.

Madison shrugged and laid her head on his shoulder.

"Do you want to go home?"

"Not yet."

"Okay. Do you want me to stay?"

"Yes, please."

* * *

 

It was nearly midnight by the time they came through the door together. Ten was waiting in the kitchen with a plate of triple chocolate fudge cookies. "Where did you find her?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Actually, she found me," Wash lied.

Ten looked up and stared at him. "Right. Keep your secrets. As long as one of us knows. Have a cookie." She pushed the plate forward, and Madison leapt for it.

"Wash?" she asked, mouth full.

Wash shook his head. "I think you two need to have a talk."

Ten and Madison shared a look, and Ten nodded. "In the morning," she swore before glancing back up at Wash. "Sit down. We're family after all."

* * *

 

Wash woke up the next morning on an unfamiliar sofa to soft voices coming from the kitchen and a kitten purring on his chest. He stayed very still as he tried to remember what had happened the previous night.

Madison. Tennessee. He had a daughter!

He lurched upright, sending poor Casper sailing yowling through the air. "Shit." He stumbled to his feet and crouched down to comfort the tiny hairball, ignoring the way his spine creaked and popped at the sudden movement.

"Oh, good," Madison said, peeking around the corner. "You're awake. You almost missed pancakes."

"Pancakes?" Wash asked, standing and holding Casper close to his chest.

"Yeah, we said last night."

"Oh. Did you bring all the kittens over or just this troublemaker?"

"All of them," Madison said. "You were out solid, a neighbor came and complained about them crying in the middle of the night. Mom said they have to go back with you though."

"Mom?" Wash asked smiling.

Madison shrugged. "We talked. She said I get to choose who gets me Friday through Sunday and who gets me Monday through Thursday. I haven't decided yet."

"Well, we are next door neighbors. You could just walk back and forth whenever you want. You already break into my apartment on a regular basis."

"Huh," Madison said, as if the thought hadn't occured to her.

"Standing skate day on Thursdays though?" Wash said, maybe a tad too hopeful. "Maybe you can teach this old dog some new tricks."

Madison beamed. "I bet I can!"

"Wash!" Kiran hollered from the kitchen. "Your comm's buzzing!"

Wash greeted her at the stove with a hug and grabbed his comm. "What's up?"

" _'What's up?' I've been standing outside your door for an hour now, that's whats up,"_ Carolina grumbled on the other end.

"Oh, I'm next door, hold on."

_"What?"_

"Carolina's here!" Wash called, heading for the door.

"Is that your sister?" Madison asked.

"Wait, what?" Ten yelped. "No, you know what, never mind, nothing surprises me anymore. Literally nothing."

Wash laughed and opened the door, sticking his head out to see Carolina sitting cross-legged in the hall.

"Get lucky?" she teased as she stood.

"Yes, but not in the way you're thinking."

Carolina raised an eyebrow.

Wash waved her in. "Ran into an old friend. Come on."

Carolina gave a confused smile and stepped through the door, only to be met with a smirking Ten.

"Hey," she said, grabbing Carolina and dipping her into a kiss right in the threshhold.

Wash's jaw fell slack.

"What." Madison stared from the kitchen.

Carolina straightened, running her fingers through Ten's hair, seemingly in awe, before pulling away and looking straight at Madison. "Who's this?" she asked.

"My daughter," Kiran and Wash said in unison.

Carolina blinked in shock, then squinted at the girl. "She... does look like you, Day."

"I'm adopted," Madison said.

Wash and Kiran turned to give her twin skeptical glances.

Madison shrugged. "Kind of?"

"It's... complicated," Wash said.

Kiran smiled and ran a hand down Carolina's arm. "Stay for breakfast, and we'll tell you all about it. And maybe afterwards, Wash can take Madison out for the day."

Wash and Madison shared a look and gagged.

"Really, mom?" Madison asked. "Right in front of my salad?"

Wash reached over for a high-five.

"You are both children." Kiran rolled her eyes fondly.

Wash laughed and glanced around at his family, hoping the Reds and Blues would return soon as well. "Well," he said, "I have good reason to be happy."

"Wait," Madison said, as they all dished up, "does this mean you really are my aunt? I literally just started calling you mom this morning."

"Brat."

"You love me. All of you."

"God help us, we do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDITED 3/10/19 because I finally came up with a real name for Ten.


End file.
